As always, disclaimer that I’m not a US citizen.
You usually see quite a few people mentioning leaving the country if Trump would get elected, but how realistic are those plans?
Not to say it’s not justified with the prospect of Project 2025 (see the other thread), but seems like a huge life change that is probably not possible for most of the people.
I’m not even allowed to leave the state for another few years
How come? And would you leave once you’re able to?
I’m on papers for some stuff I did about 10 years back. I have another 3 to go.
I absolutely would. I’ve always wanted to at the very least so exploring and never imagined staying here, but my wife wouldn’t even leave the state since all her family lives here. So that dream is pretty much dead.
Plus I imagine getting accepted anywhere would be pretty challenging with a criminal record.
Wife would be the biggest factor in all this I think, so yeah.
That said (noting for posterity), you’re right - it is pretty challenging to emigrate with a criminal record. But it’s not impossible. See for example https://www.cicnews.com/2023/12/three-ways-to-overcome-a-cannabis-conviction-before-coming-to-canada-1240675.html#gs.i5eu5j
If you got the 13 years due to possession of cannabis in the US for example - that’s not a crime in Canada, so you’d have to disclose it but it wouldn’t pose an issue in moving (assuming you otherwise were eligible and passed all the bars in getting here).
For things which are also crimes in Canada, sometimes you can apply for criminal rehabiliation - so in your case, eight years from now, you’d be eligible to apply for that (five years of good behaviour and no crimes after your sentence/probation/restriction ends).